FotJLU Day 3

Mi stirred, her head was a bit sore and her joints felt stiff. She went to sit up but something wasn’t right. Her arms weren’t bending right, and her legs couldn’t move right either. She blinked and looked herself over; ropes were pulled across her ankles as well as above and below the knees. When she looked over her shoulder she found her elbows were tied so they were almost touching, and her wrists were bound together. “Well, this sucks.” She said in annoyance, but what she heard was a series of muffled noises instead. She managed to sit upright and looked around.
“Hm..” She said in thought as she moved a little to look around. She lay down on her side again and moved so she could reach her ankle bonds. Her fingers groped around for a knot and just as she found one the door to the room opened.
She was blindfolded with a black cloth before being lifted up and thrown over someone’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She felt herself be brought down a straight hall, left-left-right, a pause, then being put down rather unceremoniously onto a table. The blindfold was removed and she was staring sideways at a monitor. “Sit her up.” She was sat up and looked over to see the person assisting her was a fair haired boy her own age. He looked like any other boy, except his pearly-white wings. To be honest he reminded her if an angel Lindsay had painted once, white blond hair and eyes the color of aquamarines.
“Leave us Angelo.” The boy just nodded and did so. A woman with black hair done in a bun and cold gray eyes studied Mikanna for a moment. “You’re blossoming as expected.” She cupped Mikanna’s chin in her hand. “Our first one to stay alive so long.” Her hand moved to the tape and ripped it off.
“What’s going on!? Where is this place, who the hell are you!?” Mikanna asked angrily, the woman didn’t reply.
“Just watch this and you’ll find out.” She held a remote in her hand and pressed a button. Mi was shocked to see her own face, albeit slightly older, on the screen.

-------------
“Today we honor the only fatality of the Space Station disaster, a heroine who has done literally nothing but good for people during the span of her career. I have managed to get an interview with her only living family member, younger brother Monnako who is here live in the studio with me now.” The slim brunette reporter looked over at the blond boy in the chair beside her. He looked only seventeen at most, his green eyes not quite meeting the reporter’s. “Monnako, what was your relationship with your sister?”
“Uhm, well…It was like most siblings, we didn’t really get along but she liked to help me whenever I needed it. Unlike our parents and most people she knew when I really needed to be alone and when I needed to be with someone.” He said weakly, he rubbed an eye. “There was one time; my friend Terri was killed in an accident, I was just seven or eight so Mi was twelve or thirteen, Mi just let me tell her anything I thought.  One time she kept talking to me when I wanted to be alone, so I yelled at her a lot. She just smiled and said ‘feel better baby-bro?’ like I had just skinned my knee or something.” The woman paused it as the boy looked up again.
-------------

“Recognize him?” The woman asked Mi, Mi thought but shook her head. “Try imagining him slightly older with glasses and his hair in a very short ponytail.”
“Papa?” Mi asked in realization, the woman nodded, Mi laughed. “No freakin’ way, that would imply I magically de-aged.”
“You were cloned from this heroine. We had her killed in that ‘accident’ so she wouldn’t discover you.”
“No!” She yelled in the woman’s face. “You’re lying!” The room began to feel warmer to the woman.
“You know it’s the truth Mikanna. Every single year, on the anniversary of that day. You’d become depressed.”
“Stop it!”
“You’d feel guilty, angry, confused. And sometimes your heart would ache.” The room began to feel warmer still as Mikanna heard the woman, and she grew angry.
“Shut up!” She yelled finally, a stack of papers burst into flame and something shone in Mi’s eyes. The same green eyes darted to the flames in shock.
“The heroine that died, controlled fire and water. And even the earth beneath her feet. Unfortunately there was an unforeseen error and you couldn’t control all three. Only the first two elemts are your servants.”
She remembered something; loud noises, smoke, the feeling of being crushed. A voice that made her feel safe. So many things came into her mind at once, but she understood them all somehow. “I remember now. I used to think I was happy, but I was wrong.” The woman studied her. She pressed a button on the wall.
“Angelo, take our guest to a bedroom. Let her relax a bit before we do our tests.” The door opened and the boy walked in, using a small knife to cut the ropes before leading her out of the room.

“I’m sorry I had to scare you before. Were you hurt when you landed?”
“Yeah, my knee’s shifted inside or something.” She replied curtly. It was hurting pretty bad but she ignored it.
“I should have used a different method, if it hadn’t been so easy to escape from you would not have been wounded.” He said guiltily, Mi was surprised to realize that he wasn’t like the woman. He obviously felt remorse about capturing her. “I’ve been here my entire life, raised as a warrior. But I know that life isn’t just fighting.”
“Then why don’t you leave? Use those wings to fly away?”
“And go where? I stick out like a sore thumb anywhere because of the wings. They’re a burden and a gift.” He said somewhat sadly, he opened a door. “Here. You can get off that leg for a while.” She sat down on a cot inside and rubbed her knee. He knelt down in front of her and felt the knee. “It’ll probably have pain for a while.”
“I’ll be fine.” She said shrugging it off. “What is this place anyway?”
“It’s called Shinwa no Keimusho.” He explained sitting beside her. “It was made many years before our births, I know not it’s intentions however.” He said with a sigh.
“Do you know what it means?” Mi asked him, he shook his head. “Mythological prison.”

Earlier (but not that earlier)…

“Dad, who was that guy anyway?” Thomas leaned against his father’s massive computer.
“They call themselves Shinwa no Keimusho, they started out as a cloning research institute. But the power got to their heads and they started secretly getting DNA from notable figures.”
“Like heroes?” Lindsay asked nervously.
“Heroes, political figures, business men, you name it.” Bruce explained, he typed a bit and the picture of the older Mikanna came on the screen. “The Mi you know is one of their creations, we never told you about this but when you were all just little kids we found one of their bases and were ambushed by soldiers they had made. Mi was the fiercest of them, although she didn’t kill.”
“Yeah, you know how I was limping for a while, I said I hurt my leg on the job? That was Mi’s doing.” Wally added, he rubbed the spot. “Still hurts from time to time.”
“Anyway, we realized it was her when she used her powers to-”
“Powers?” Interrupted Derek, Bruce glared, Wally shook his head although it was unsure whether he was making the gesture to Bruce or his son.
“She can control the opposing forces of water and fire. When we knew her, her signature move was to make a dragon from water and make it blow fire. When she did that we all knew. We took her from that place and rewrote her memories of that day and before.”
“So she’s been living a lie and never even knew? Living like nothing ever happened?” Lindsay asked, somewhat upset by this revelation.
“Well, not entirely, some things have stuck. Like her paranoia about being alone, and her athletic ability.” Wally said, Lindsay eyed her father. “You’ve all noticed. Lindsay actually said once that she fell from the rope she was climbing in gym, and landed like a cat on her feet completely unfazed. And when you went to that book signing in England last week, she was clinging to you the entire time because she didn’t know anyone else.”
“She did manage to ask Jo why she totally abused the death-stick, but other than that she didn’t say a word. I had to tell Jo how to write it out.” Lindsay mused to herself aloud.
“She was like that when I knew her. That wasn’t entirely the geneticists fault.” Wally said calmly. “Now if she has her necklace we can find her, it has a very small tracker in the largest stone.” Bruce began to type rapidly, looking at every bit of data carefully.
“Found it, she’s in an old complex in southern Canada.” He looked at his son and Wally’s children. “Ready for some final training?” He asked the trio. Thomas nodded, he had been chosen as leader out of the three.
“Let’s go.”